Adherents.com: Religious Groups in Literature

34,420 citations from literature (mostly science fiction and fantasy) referring to real churches, religious groups, tribes, etc. [This database is for literary research only. It is not intended as a source of information about religion.]

Pg. 175: "...until I set forth on an ill-fated expedition on the sailing-ship Genesis in September 2901, that the exact form of my destiny was determined. " [Other refs. to this ship.]; Pg. 242: "...in the lush Eden of Australia's interior. "

"Crystal vases on the table held the Fruits of Paradise: the large, rosy apples of the Knowledge of Evil and the completely inedible-looking, but nevertheless worm-eaten, apples of the Knowledge of Good. "

Christianity - Old Testament

world

3000

Williamson, Jack. Terraforming Earth. New York: Tor (2001); pg. 62.

Pg. 62: "They fought in the cockpit. Pepe was only a lightweight David to Arne's Goliath, but he had won his way out of the barrio in the boxing ring. "; Pg. 115: "'Paradise!... We ought to name it Eden.' " [Also pg. 116.]; Pg. 250: "'Thanks to old Calvin DeFort. Another Noah saving Earth from a different deluge.' "

"My mother went that way. She was skunked and obscure on kiutl when I was born--a blue and weathered twist of flesh kept alive on corpsemeat... She was twelve and had made enough contacts in Little Eden's research labs to barter me... It was clear to us, Lami lived on in our marrows, but the grins thought they could keep her out of Little Eden... " [Other refs. to 'Little Eden', not in DB.]

"'Amanita muscaria,' Tigranes said, 'the fly agaric mushroom, is toxic, and is used as a hallucinatory intoxicant in Siberia. It's not a benign drug, makes you sick, puking. The urine of an amanita-intoxicated person is also hallucinogenic, but much less toxic. One of the active ingredients, muscimole, is excreted unchanged from the body, while some more toxic fractions are metabolized. The Chukchi of Siberia drink the urine of an intoxicated shaman and, under his magical supervision, have their own visions.'

"'Siberia, as far east and north as anyone can go and still be on the continent of Asia. Most of my ancestors were ethnic Russian. But no one in Siberia is entirely one thing. I have ancestors who were Chukchi and Inuit...' "

"Mike's unique ways of growing up were all right; Mike was unique. But this last thing--'The Reverend Doctor Valentine M. Smith, A.B., D.D., PhD., Founder and Pastor of the Church of All Worlds, Inc.'--gad! It was bad enough that the boy had decided to be a Holy Joe instead of leaving other people's souls alone... The worst was that Mike claimed that he had hatched the idea from something Jubal had said, about what a church was and what it could do. " [Most of the rest of the novel deals with the development of Mike's new religion.]

"'...We close down the Church of Al Worlds--it is closed. So we move and open the Congregation of the One Faith--and it gets kicked out again. Then we reopen elsewhere as the Temple of the Great Pyramid... and when we have the Medical Association and the local bar and newspapers and politicos snapping at our heels there--why, we open the Brotherhood of Baptism somewhere else. Each one gains a hard core of disciplined who can't be hurt. Mike started less than two years ago... Now we've got a solid Nest... plus advanced pilgrims we caan get in touch with later. Someday we'll be too strong to persecute.' "

[Year estimated.] "The people they threaded through were these:Three white men--one in a business suit, one old, one a bum.Two black men--one grateful, one notThree old women.Five Puerto Ricans of both sexes and various ages.Two young women--one bitter, one not.A Minister of the Church of God.A group of snazzy black buccaneers talking bad. "

"Members of the Apostolic Overcoming Holy Church of God, the Pentecostal Fire Baptized Holiness Church and numerous other groups gave away most or all of their worldly possessions... Delegates to a World Synod of Christian Churches began arriving at a tent city near Smith Center, Kansas, late Saturday night. Trouble developed almost immediately between the Brethren Church of God (Reformed Dunkers) and the Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit Predestinarian Baptists... "

Denton, Bradley. Buddy Holly Is Alive and Well on Ganymede. New York: William Morrow and Co. (1991); pg. 117.

"...Mother... had little choice in the matter and did the best she could in picking the church. She enrolled me in the Vacation Bible School that was operated by the Central Shawnee County United Methodist Church of God in Christ of the United States of America, which she probably figured was the Vacation Bible School that was the least like an ideological concentration camp in all of Topeka. "

"...I assumed they were just another crackpot fundamentalist sect like the Holy Rollers or the Snake Handlers, an attempt to keep alive the pieties of a simpler age in the present age of abundance. "

Church of God With Signs Following (Snake Handlers)

USA

1995

Sagan, Carl. Contact. New York: Simon & Schuster (1985); pg. 141.

"...he railed against other deviant forms of Christian fundamentalism, including those aspirant herpetologists who tested their faith by fondling snakes in accord with the biblical injunction that the pure of heart shall not fear the venom of serpents. "

[The first sentence of the novel refers to the Mormon guard, the narrator's best friend during his time in the Springfield prison, the first setting in the novel. The narrator calls the guard 'R.M.', which stands for 'Returned Missionary' in Latter-day Saint culture, but is vernacular rarely if ever found books, indicating the author has first-hand experience with Latter-day Saints.]

Pg. 1: "May 11Young R.M., my Mormon guard, has brought me a supply of paper at last. It is three months to the day since I first asked him for some. Inexplicable, this change of heart. "; Pg. 10: "...back when in the Montgomery jail "

"Perhaps Andrea has been able to get a bribe to him. Rigor Mortis [the narrator's nickname for the Mormon guard, who he also calls 'R.M.'] denies it, but then he would deny it. We talked politics, and I was able to gather from hints R.M. let drop that President McNamara has decided to use 'tactical' nuclear weapons. Perhaps, therefore, it is to McNamara, not to Andrea, that I am indebted for this paper, since R.M. has been fretting these many weeks that General Sherman, poor General Sherman, had been denied adequate hitting power. When, as today, R.M. is happy, his fearful smile, those thin lips pulled back tightly across the perfect deathshead teeth, flickers into being at the slightest pretense of humor. Why do all the Mormons I have known have that same constipated smile? Is their toilet training exceptionally severe? "

"However, we lead here no worse a life than we would be leading now outside these walls had we answered our draft calls. Nasty as this prison is, there is this advantage to it--that it will not lead so promptly, so probably, to death. Not to mention the inestimable advantage of righteousness.

Ah, but who is this 'we'? Besides myself there are not more than a dozen other conchies [conscientious objectors] here, and we are kept carefully apart, to prevent the possibility of esprit. The prisoners--the real prisoners--hold us in contempt. They have that more sustaining advantage than righteousness--guilt. So our isolation, my isolation, becomes ever more absolute. And, I fear, my self-pity. There are evenings when I sit here hoping that R.M. will come here to argue with me. " [R.M.: A Mormon guard in the Springfield prison.]

"How to distinguish between righteousness and self-will? Between the two Louies? [Louis II being one] How, once committed, to stop questioning? (That is the question.) Does someone like R.M. [a Mormon guard in the prison who is the narrator's best friend while there] have such a problem? He gives the impression of never having had a doubt in his whole life--and Mormons seem to have so much more to doubt.

I am being less than charitable. Those wells, too, are drying up.

...A review--I am real! Must write a letter to Mons, thanking her. Perhaps R.M. will mail it for me. Maybe I'll even be able to start writing again. "

Pg. 6-7: "An hour this evening with young Rigor Mortis [a Mormon guard]. The epithet may be unjust, since R.M. is the nearest thing to a friend that I've found here. He is, for all his orthodoxies, serious-minded, a man of goodwill, and our talks are, I hope more than exercises in rhetoric. For my own part, I know that I feel, beyond my evangelistic urge to bring him around, an almost desperate desire to understand him, for it is R.M. and his like who perpetuate this incredible war, who believe, with a sincerity I cannot call into doubt, that in doing so they perform a moral action. Or am I to accept the thesis of our neo-Millsians (neo-Machiavellians, rather), who maintain that the electorate is simply practiced upon, the groundlings of this world drama, that their secret masters in the Olympus of Washington mold their opinions as they (admittedly) control the press. "

"But Youngerman at least knew the meaning of his silence. When I speak to R.M. [the Mormon guard] the language itself seems to alter. I grasp at meanings and they flit away, like minnows in a mountain stream. Or, a better metaphor, it is like one of those secret doors that one used to see in horror movies. It appears to be part of the bookcase, but when the hidden spring is released it turns around and its reverse side is a rough stone face. Must try and develop that image.

The last word on R.M.: We do not, I fear we cannot, understand each other. I sometimes wonder if the reason isn't simply that he's very stupid. "

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Arizona

1943

Henderson, Zenna. Pilgrimage: The Book of the People. New York: Avon (1961); pg. 72.

"'How come? What's wrong with them?'

'Why, nothing, Mac, nothing. Matter of fact they're dern nice people. Trade here a lot. Come in to church and the dances.'

'Dances?' I glanced around the steep sloping hills.

'Sure. We ain't as dead as we look,' the attendant grinned. 'Come Saturay night we're quite a town. Lots of ranches around these hills. Course, not much out Cougar Canyon way. That's where your friends live, didn't you say?... they just--feel different... Good different. Real nice different.' He grinned again. 'Wouldn't mind shining up to some of them gals myself. Don't get no encouragement, though.' "

"Mr. Thorsen... He spoke heavily, as though some of the words were still awkward for his lips and tongue. He had come to this country from Norway as a boy, parents proselytized by Mormon missionaries, and entered the valley by horse and wagon. He never talked to us when we played with William but moved about, rigid and heavy-shouldered and silent, with his own thoughts. In his seventies, manipulating a cane, he walked down the country road to church every Sunday so long as the weather was fine, kept track of his the farm he lived on with his widowed daughter and grandson.

He had dignity. But his dignity came from distance--and heaviness--and history. He was far from us.

'Well,' he said, 'I trust you. Your grandfather was my friend and I trust his grandsons.' " [Other refs. throughout story, not in DB.]

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Arizona

1950

Henderson, Zenna. Pilgrimage: The Book of the People. New York: Avon (1961); pg. 140.

Pg. 140: "'...My mom and dad can tell me my grandparents and great-grandparents and great-great-grandparents, and they used to all the time...' "; Pg. 146: "But where did that leave me? I shrank from the possibilities... But Mother and Dad! And Granpa Josh and Gramma Malvina and Great-granpa Benedaly and-- I clutched at the memories of all the family stories I'd heard. Crossing the oean in steerage. Starting a new land. Why, my ancestors were as solid as a rock wall back of me, as far back as--as Adam, almost. "

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Arizona

1955

Henderson, Zenna. Pilgrimage: The Book of the People. New York: Avon (1961); pg. 164.

"'Maybe,' Melodye said, sobering, 'maybe it's because knowing there can be this kind of communication between the People, and trying to reach it for myself, I have made myself more receptive to communication from a source that knows no Outsiders--no East or West--no bond or free.'

'Hmm,' Dr. Curtis said. 'There you have a point for pondering.' "

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Arizona

1955

Henderson, Zenna. Pilgrimage: The Book of the People. New York: Avon (1961); pg. 226.

"'These are people who will listen when I cry. They will help me find my answers. They will sustain me in the long long way that I must grope back to find myself again. But I'm not alone! Never alone again!' "

"The pickup crawled past the little trailer where for one hour every Sunday morning Tom went through the holy motions on behalf of old Sister Watchman and a few other faithfuls of the Bitterwater Branch of the Mormon church. Sister Watchman, who had no eyes to see but could weave an intricate rug of many colors, could also read the desperate scribble on his heart: 'I feel sad for you, Hastiin T'aa geed 'Asdzani. You feed all these others, who will feed you?'

'My Heavenly Father,' he used to say... " [Many other refs. throughout story, not in DB.]

"His personal feelings about the Indian Placement Program had always been ambivalent. The dark view held that Navajo children were being taken from their natural families so they could be transformed into white and delightsome little Mormons. The 'inspired' view said it gave them a shot at a 'real' education. Tom had seen both sides of the coin. Placement was a ticket out, but to where? Anything to spare them the boarding schools. "

"McGee's memory flashed to his first view of Earth's Grand Canyon. He had seen it before in pictures, movies, even on Imax the night before [referring to Latter-day Saint film director Kieth Merrill's IMAX film 'Grand Canyon: Hidden Secrets']--but nothing had prepared him for the real thing. "

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Boohte

2300

Willis, Connie. Uncharted Territory. New York: Bantam (1994); pg. 56.

"The shuttlewren changed course in midflap and started toward us. 'I don't know,' I said, taking off my hat, and waving with it to keep it away. 'Maybe the indidges have got a gold mine up there. Maybe they're secretly building Las Vegas with all the stuff Bult's ordered.' " [The is on another planet, in the future. This comment is made facetiously. The original Las Vegas, Nevada was founded by Latter-day Saint settlers. Also note that the geology and terrain of the setting of this novel, as depicted on the cover and described in the text, mirrors that which is found in southern Utah and Nevada. Note that the name of the setting, Boohte, may be pronounced to rhyme with 'Utah.']

Pg. 87: "'And,' I said, 'this planet was settled by men who had strong religious beliefs, who specifically came here to preserve them, and who took great pains to instill them in their descendants.'

'That too. Your Covenant. Yet that was--what, fifteen hundred, two thousand years ago? It could all have crumbled by now, but it hasn't. It's stronger than ever. Your devoutness...' "; Pg. 94: "'Such drugs are forbidden...' I said.

'Of course, of course!... Your law is wise on this point. Your Covenant could not survive if you allowed these chemicals to be used here.'

...'One first must tell you that he has used these drugs himself and found them not entirely satisfactory. True, they open the infinite. True, they let one merge with the Godhead. But only for moments... It is the illusion of the soul's opening, not the opening itself...' " [Examples of the book's possible LDS references, especially given phonetic & contextual similarities elsewhere in book. Also: Kinnall]

"A walled city [Glain] is, like Salla's capital, but otherwise not much like it. Salla City has grace and power; its buildings are made of great blocks of substantial stone, black basalt and rosy granite quarried in the mountains, and its streets are wide and sweeping, affording noble vistas and splendid promenades. Apart from our custom of letting narrow slits stand in place of true windows, Salla City is an open, inviting place, the architecture of which announces to the world the boldness and self-sufficiency of its citizens. " [This also describes Salt Lake City & the mountain-quarried granite S.L. Temple, with its narrow slit windows. 'Salla City' is phonetically similar to Salt Lake City.] Pg. 78: "Two other sons followed, Noim and Kinnall, and daughters named Halum and Loimel. " [Halum and Loimel are named after older relatives. Loimel's namesake is 'Loimel Helalam' (pg. 72). Possibly these character names are derived from Nephi, Sam, Laman, Lemuel and Helaman.]

"These three men were introduced to Sole as Chester, Chase and Billy. Chester was a tall Negro with a kind of ebony beauty about him that was just a bit too slick and superficial--like a tourist carving at an African airport. Billy and Chase were clean-cut out of cemetery marble, two Mormon evangelists. Sole imagined the two large steel suitcases they'd hauled on board and blocked the aisle with as packed with thousands of Sunday School texts. "

[Factual information about the author in introduction to a short story.] "About the Author

Shayne Bell was born in 1957 in Rexburg, Idaho.

He grew up on th family ranch outside of town, and even before he could read, his mother was reading science fiction to him. After high school, he served a two-year mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Brazil has inspired many of his stories.

Returning to the U.S.A., he continued to work on his writing skills while obtaining bachelor's and master's degrees from Brigham Young University... "

"We'd been coming up in the second to the last car for newsmen--neither of Salt Lake's papers had the pull of CBS, Newsweek, or the New York Times. We crammed into the car with reporters from Vancouver, Lima, and Sapporo--impatient, of course. Seventy-six presidents, prime ministers, and dictators were Up Top, with members of twelve royal families, the Sao Paulo Symphony, actors from all seven continents, and twenty-three science fiction writers flown to Macapa to inaugurate the story of the century: the elevator to space. Man's ladder to the stars. Jacob's ladder to Heaven, as it was called... Flying to the moon would be as cheap as flying from Salt Lake to Toronto... " [The two newspapers referred to here are the Desert News, owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the Salt Lake Tribune. Two of the story's 3 main characters are reporters from those 2 newspapers. The narrator is apparently a Latter-day Saint.]

"'I'm not going to repent and get baptized, so I'm bound to go to hell, therefore no matter when I die, I'm doomed,' he [Bean] said.

'Nonsense. Our understanding of doctrine is not perfect, and no matter what the popes have said, I don't believe for a moment that God is going to damn for eternity the billions of children he allowed to be born and die without baptism. No, I think you're likely to go to hell because, despite all your brilliance, you are still quite amoral. Sometime before you die, I pray most earnestly that you will learn that there are higher laws that transcend mere survival, and higher causes to serve. When you give yourself to such a great cause, my dear boy, then I will not fear your death, because I know that a just God will forgive you for the oversight of not having recognized the truth of Christianity during your lifetime.' " [Sister Carlotta, a Catholic nun, here expresses some of the author's LDS beliefs.]

Amara Aquilla: "Father--Mother in Heaven--if you love me--Help me!! " [Amara is from the city of Nova Roma, which was founded by Romans who left Europe in the 1st century A.D. and settled among ancient Incans in the deep Andes mountains. Amara, in referring to 'Mother in Heaven' appears to actually be calling on her own, deceased mother. This does not appear to be a reference to the Latter-day Saint concept of a Mother in Heaven, despite the similar words.]

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

California

1959

Knight, Damon. A For Anything. New York: Tor (1990; 1959); pg. 17.

"'...We're going to start fresh, Davey. You can't make an interplanetary vehicle out of a Viking, boy--might as well put rockets on an outhouse. Think about this, now. Really see it... Build your ship--any size. Make it as big as an apartment house if you want--and all payload, Davey! Put everything in. Bedrooms, bowling alleys, kitchens, wup, no kitchens; don't need 'em. But libraries, movie theaters, laboratories... Now: put your rocket motors underneath. All you want. With the Gismo, you can have ten or a million. Now what about fuel--all those big tanks that used to kill us dead before we got off the ground? Davey, two little tanks, hydrazine and oxygen, and two Gismos. We make our fuel as we need it. Forget about your goddamn mass-energy ratios! I can take jack up the goddamn Mormon Temple and take it to the Moon! The Moon, hell!' " [Physicist from L.A. refers to the Los Angeles Temple, as an example of a very large structure.]

Pg. 24: "And in one of the cases is a program for a play performed in the hotel theater (wherever that was) on November 20, 1896; The Little Minister by J. M. Barrie, starring an actress named Elise McKenna. Next to the program is a photograph of her face; the most gloriously lovely face I've ever seen in my life.

I've fallen in love with her... ";

Pg. 25: "Elise McKenna. Lovely name. Exquisite face... Seems to me I've heard her name before. Didn't she do Peter Pan? If she's the one I think she is, she was a splendid actress.

She certainly was a beautiful one.

No, it's more than beauty. It's the expression on her face that haunts and conquers me. That gentle, honest, sweet expression. I wish I could have met her. " [Elise McKenna, the main female character in the novel, is based on the real-life Latter-day Saint actress Maude Adams. Refs. to her throughout novel, not in DB.]

[Looking at a book about 'Elise McKenna', i.e. Maude Adams.] "Next to that is a shot of her as Peter Pan (she did play it, then), wearing what looks like an army camouflage suit and a feathered hat, blowing those same pipes that are being blown by Pan on that wooden chair downstairs.

In the bottom row are photographs of her as other characters she played: L'Aiglon, Portia, Juliet... a rooster yet in Chanticleer... "

[Character is reading books about 'Elise McKenna', i.e. Latter-day Saint actress Maude Adams.] "A brief account states that she was one of the most revered actresses on the American stage, for many years the theater's greatest box-office draw. (How come no book about her, then?) Born in Salt Lake City on November 11, 1867, she left school when she was fourteen to become a full-time actress, coming to New York with her mother in 1888 to make an appearance in The Paymaster. She appeared with E. H. Southern, was John Drew's leading lady for five years before she became a star. She was extremely shy and was said to never have missed a performance in her entire life. She never married and she died in 1953. "

[Character is reading books about 'Elise McKenna', i.e. Latter-day Saint actress Maude Adams.] "Second book. Martin Ellsworth's Photographic History of the American Stage. More photographs, not on several pages, though; spread out throughout the book, taking her in chronological order from her first role to her last--The Wandering Boy in 1878 to The Merchant of Venice in 1931. A long career.

Here's a photograph of her playing Juliet with William Faversham. I bet she was good.

* * *

The Little Minister again. Since it opened in New York City in September 1896, it must have been a tryout here.

My God, what a torrent of hair! It looks light in color, not blonde but not auburn either. She has a robe across her shoulders and she's looking at the camera; at me. "

It speaks about her [McKenna/Adams'] manager, William Fawcett Robinson. She fit his standards perfectly, it says; his conception (and the era's) of what an actress should, ideally, be. Preceding the adulation of movie stars by decades, she was the first actress to create a mystique in the public's eye--never seen in public, never quoted by the press, apparently without an off-stage life, the absolute quintessence of seclusion.

Robinson approved of that, says O'Neil. They'd had friction up till 1897 but, from that year on, she was devoted to her work, sublimating every aspect of her life to stagecraft.

O'Neil says she had a magic quality as an actress. Even in her late thirties, she could play a girl or elfin boy. Her charm, said the critics, was 'ethereal, lambent, lucent.' O'Neil adds, 'These qualities do not always reveal themselves in her photographs.' "

[Character is reading books about 'Elise McKenna', i.e. Latter-day Saint actress Maude Adams.] "Then came 1897 and the critics as well as the public enveloping her in what O'Neil describes as 'an endless embrace.'

Barrie adapted his novel The Little Minister for her. Later, he wrote Quality Street for her, then Peter Pan, then What Every Woman Knows, then A Kiss for Cinderella. Peter Pan was her greatest triumph (though not her favorite; that was The Little Minister). 'I never witnessed such emotional adulation in the theatre,' one critic wrote. 'It was hysterical. Her devotees pelted the stage with flowers.' In response to which, O'Neil adds, she made the same brief, breathless curtain speech she was always known to speak. 'I thank you. I thank you--for us all. Goodnight.'

Despite her great success, her private life remained a mystery. Her few intimate friends were people outside the profession. " [Other refs., not in DB.]

[Character is reading books about 'Elise McKenna', i.e. Latter-day Saint actress Maude Adams.] "Another quote; the actor Nat Goodwin. 'Elise McKenna is a household word. She stands for all that represents true and virtuous womanhood. At the zenith of her fame, she has woven her own mantle and placed it above the pedestal on which she stands alone. And yet, as I looked into those fawnlike eyes, I wondered. I noted little furrows in that piquant face and sharp vertical lines between her brows. Her skin, to me, seemed dry, her gestures tense, her speech jerky. I felt like taking one of those artistic hands in mine and saying, 'Little woman, I fear you are unconsciously missing the greatest thing in life--romance.' '

What do I know about her so far?... That, up until 1897, she was outgoing, successful, proficient at acting, and fought with her manager.

That, after 1897, she became: one, a recluse; two, a total star; and three, her manager's conception of a total star. "

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

California

1995

Powers, Tim. Earthquake Weather. New York: Tor (1997); pg. 165.

"Then, in a crackling of trodden dry leaves, all four of the figures in the meadow were lurching away back toward the stairs that led down to the beach, the two mannikins waving their free arms in perfect synchronization, like, Nardie thought giddily, a couple of Gladys Knight's Pips. "

[The very first words of the novel:] "The gull swooped by, seemed to hover a moment on unmoving wings.

Hell Tanner flipped his cigar butt at it and scored a lucky hit. The bird uttered a hoarse cry and beat suddenly at the air. It climbed about fifty feet, and whether it shrieked a second time, he would never know.

It was gone.

A single white feather rocked in the violent sky drifted out over the edge of the cliff, and descended, swinging, toward the ocean. Tanner chuckled through his beard, against the steady roar of the wind and the pounding surf. Then he took his feet down from the handlebars, kicked up the stand, and gunned his bike to life. " [This is a significantly symbolic passage. The gull is the state of Utah and significant in Mormon history. As such, it is symbolic of Tanner's ethnic Mormon heritage, which is further hinted at later in the novel. The novel is largely about Tanner's path to regain his humanity and place in civil society.]

'Hell,' said Tanner. 'That's my name. I was the seventh kid in our family, and when I was born the nurse held me up to my old man, 'What name do you want on the birth certificate?' and Dad said, 'Hell!' and walked away. So she put it down like that. That's what my brother told me. I never saw my old man to ask if that's how it was. He copped out the same day. Sounds right, though.'

'So your mother raised all seven of you?'

'No. She croaked a couple weeks later, and different relatives took us kids.'

'I see... You've still got a choice, you know. Do you want to try it [transporting the medicine to Boston], or don't you?' " [Passage has other indicators of Tanner's Mormon background: an unusually large family size, and his ironic name, a word many Mormons avoid saying. Zelazny chose 'Tanner' because it was a prominent Mormon name. At the time, N. Eldon Tanner was in the First Presidency.]

'Who wasn't, after the Quake?' Her answer was simple, and true. The Mormons, the Vincent de Paul Society, and Hadassah had been among the first to bring massive aid into California. The religious environment had filtered all through California society and California politics. For several decades California had been another word for conservatism. "

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

California

2053

Rucker, Rudy. Freeware. New York: Avon (1998; c. 1997); pg. 2.

Pg. 2: "Monique's mother Andrea was very strange. Sometimes, under the influence of certain chelated rare-earth polymers, she would form her body into a giant replica of the Koran or of the Book of Mormon and lie out in front of the beachfront Boardwalk amusement park, babbling about transfinite levels of heaven, chaotic feedback, and the angels Izra'il and Moroni. Her body was more mold than plastic, and it looked like she might fall apart anytime now, but Andrea had gotten rejuvenation treatments for herself before, and she planned to do it again--if she could get the money. "; Pg. 6: "In the past she'd used the gaseous verbiage of the King James Bible, the Book of Mormon, and the Koran, but these days she modeled her speech patterns on the style of science journals. "; Pg. 12: "'Shaped like the Koran or the Book of Mormon? Or maybe like the... works of Shakespeare!' "

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

California

2053

Rucker, Rudy. Freeware. New York: Avon (1998; c. 1997); pg. 8.

"Spike Kimball had been a muscular Mormon missionary who'd asked Andrea for sex three years ago, and Abdul Quayoom had been an Islamic rug programmer who'd approached Andrea three years before that. If they'd been smarter, instead of trying to have sex with Andrea, they would have burned her in a puddle of alcohol...

'The direct control of a cheeseball must be of limited temporal duration... Otherwise the danger of discovery becomes too great. And it is indeed essential that the cheeseball be terminated in such a way that no trace of the user's thinking cap can be found in the remains. Do you want to hear what I did to Quayoom and Kimball? About how I helped them follow their death angels Moroni and Isra'il into the beyond?' " [More refs. to the character Kimball, not all in DB, pg. 8.]

'Okay,' he said, feeling humiliated. Maybe the car was right. Resignedly, he inserted the key. The engine started up but the controls were still dead. The Rushmore Effect was still taking place inside the hood, he knew; it was a losing argument. 'All right, I'll let you drive,' he said with as much dignity as possible. " [There are refs. to 'the Rushmore Effect' throughout the novel. This refers to the artificial intelligence circuits in most electronic devices: cars, elevators, appliances, medicine cabinets, etc. It is never made clear in the novel whether the Rushmore Effect is named after Mount Rushmore.]

"'All the gods?' Esther swallowed. Her mouth was dry, her chest heavy. 'Diana, you know I can't believe such a thing. You know I can't believe that my God is just one god out of hundreds or thousands or millions.'

'No,' Diana said, lowering her eyes, feeling a weight press down upon her broad, strong shoulders. 'No, I see now that you cannot. And, perhaps, no one raised in this country, in this culture, truly can... I was raised to accept the concept of a plurality of gods,' Diana said. 'I was raised to believe in gods who were physical, who walked among us, talked with us. I have been to Olympus, seen them in their homes, seen them in their daily lives. I comprehend my gods, Esther, but I see now that the very core of so many faiths in this land is the incomprehensibility of their god.' "

[1] [Olsen, from Utah, and apparently a Latter-day Saint, although he doesn't follow the Word of Wisdom, talks with Roger.] "'I see that,' Olsen said, 'but how can you be positive when you're in love? Maybe all you want is a piece of tail. That isn't the same; you can be in love and not want to go to bed with her, in fact maybe that's how you know you're really in love; you don't want to go to bed with her, and you don't want to sully her. If a man really loves a woman he honors and respects her.'

'There's nothing disrespectful about sex,' Roger said.

'Sex is unfair to the woman. It robs her of her virginity. That's the most precious possession a woman has. Would you want to do that to a woman you loved? I'll bet you'd kill some guy that violated a woman you were with; you'd castrate him for doing that. I think if you really love a woman you're supposed to protect her. A woman don't get nothing out of sex. Most women hate it. They submit to it to please the man.' "

[2] [Olsen, from Utah, talks with Roger.] "'That's a lot of bull,' Roger said. 'A woman enjoys it as much as a man.'

'Only a certain type of cheap woman,' Olsen said violently. 'A real lady you could love and be proud of and would want to marry wouldn't enjoy it, and she wouldn't let you do it to her; I'll tell you that. You find a woman that'll go to bed with you and I'll show you a bum.'

'Even after marriage?'

Olsen picked at a blister on his thumb. 'That's different. There has to be kids. But it's a sin to have sex outside of marriage. We weren't meant to have marital relations except for the production of children.' " [More.]

[Aboard the Queen Mary.] "More memorabilia. Dominoes. Dice in a leather cup. A mechanical pencil. Books for religious services; Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Mormon, Christian Scientist--that old, familiar book. I feel as though I were an archaeologist excavating in a temple. " [Of course, it should also be noted that the main female character in the novel is Elisa McKenna, who is based on the famous real-life actress Maude Adams, the Latter-day Saint actress from Utah.]

[Shayla Berrington, is a fictional LDS actress.] "'Christ, you're [expletive] beautiful,' said the little man. 'I knew you were a knockout, but you're even more impressive in real life. You must drive the beachboys...'

Shayla stiffened. She had been prepared to suffer some boorishness, but she had been raised to abhor obscenities. 'Is Mr. Borden here yet?' she asked coldly.

Harod smiled but shook his head. 'Afraid not,' he said. 'Willi had to go visit some old friends back East...'

Shayla hesitated. She had thought herself well-prepared to make the deal she wanted with Mr. Borden and his associate producer, but the thought of dealing just with Tony Harod made her shudder. She would have made some excuse and left, but the movement was preempted by the appearance of a beautiful woman.

'Ms. Berrington, allow me to introduce my assistant, Maria Chen,' said Harod. 'Maria, this is Shayla Berrington, a very talented young actress who may be the star of our new films.' "

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